Keywords

Introduction

Life was going well for ChidiwaFootnote 1 when we first interviewed her in 1993. Her husband, who worked for the army, came home to visit on weekends and earned a healthy monthly wage of Z$1,000. Their rent for lodging (for a family that included four children) and their food each consumed 20% of their monthly household income. Chidiwa described their links with their rural home in Rusape as very strong; Chidiwa and her family sent money monthly and other goods annually, and in exchange, they received “mealies” (sweet corn) after the harvest.

However, in 1995, the family was in crisis. By then Chidiwa had had another baby, but unfortunately in the meantime her husband had died, leaving her with five children to support. Although there was no indication of the cause of her husband’s death, given the high prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS within the armed forces, one could not help but be concerned with Chidiwa’s health, as well as that of the younger children. The household income dropped by 88%, and the meagre $120 earned by selling doilies and some of their furniture was spent entirely on their monthly rent. Given that rural homes were usually established through the husband, it is not surprising that these ties had become quite weak, with no exchange of money, goods or mealies. Chidiwa and her five children were solely dependent on urban relatives for food, and social welfare was paying for school fees. Chidiwa’s only hope was that her husband’s pension would come through.

This chapter will explore the vulnerability and resilience of 100 lodgers in the medium-sized city of Gweru, Zimbabwe, in a crucial three-year period, from 1993 to 1995. It seeks to understand the elements of food security from the vantage point of insecure housing during a period of growing tumult, with structural adjustment-driven retrenchments and the removal of food subsidies. The chapter examines social and economic rural–urban linkages within translocal families, modes of livelihood, household fluidity, and rent and food increases, and presents issues around vulnerability and resilience. The translocal lens allows us to examine multidirectional and overlapping networks that facilitate migration and transactional flows (Greiner & Sakdapolrak, 2013). The focus of a case study on Gweru helps us to unpack how secondary urbanism plays a role in food security. The chapter presents insights into the everyday lives of lodgers with respect to the challenges of poverty and hunger, and the gendered aspects of vulnerability and resilience.

Insights into food, housing and livelihood insecurity during the 1993–1995 period establish a baseline of resilience and vulnerability right at the start of the IMF/World Bank-sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). However, this landscape was merely the precipice of a period of accelerating food poverty and food insecurity. More recently, Godfrey Tawodzera and Easther Chigumira (2019) declared that food poverty and food insecurity in Zimbabwe had reached epidemic proportions. Between January and March 2017, close to 4.1 million people out of a total population of 16 million needed food assistance (Tawodzera & Chigumira, 2019).

Tawodzera et al. (2016) trace the impact of ESAP, the Fast Track Land Reform Program, and Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), all of which negatively impacted urban livelihoods and exacerbated household food insecurity. Their research revealed that 83% of households in Harare’s poorest areas experienced food insecurity. Thus, the ESAP-driven economic shocks to urban livelihoods and to the costs of food and basic services for the 1993–1995 period covered by this research was only the precursor to an accelerating, pervasive economic crisis that was particularly devastating for the urban poor.

The Early 1990s Zimbabwean Context: Structural Adjustment, Drought and HIV/AIDS

In what ostensibly should have been an exciting, prosperous second decade of independence, things went wrong from the start. The early 1990s saw a series of events that would set the stage for disaster within the fledgling country.

Beginning in 1991–1992, ESAP laid the groundwork for extreme economic hardships in Zimbabwe. These came in the form of massive formal sector retrenchments and unpredictable, sudden and frequent increases in the cost of basic food and services (Grant, 2007). The official unemployment rate was 40% and real wages fell by 33% between 1990 and 1997. By 1997, inflation had reached 45%, some 46% of all households had incomes below the food poverty line and 42% of urban households were poor (Grant, 2007, p. 79). Unfortunately, since 1998 Zimbabwe has been in a spiral of what Patrick Bond and Masimba Manyanya (2003) describe as “nearly uninterrupted economic chaos”. Two other concurrent events add to the perfect storm of accelerating deterioration.

Just as ESAP was imposed, Zimbabwe experienced a major drought in 1991–1992. The direct impacts on food security included widespread crop failure, drops in agricultural production and rising food prices through 1993. Due to this situation, the government postponed the ESAP-driven removal of food subsidies on staples such as maize meal, bread and sugar. Instead, in 1991 the government brought in a wide range of successful drought-relief strategies, which included direct food relief and food for work programmes (Marquette, 1997, p. 1145).

The success of the drought-relief programme, coupled with productive harvest seasons 1991 and 1992, led to the removal of food subsidies in 1993. While maize meal costs remained stable, the price of bread and sugar in real terms rose by 40% and 50%, respectively, in 1993 (Marquette, 1997). The lethal forces of rising food prices, inflation, retrenchments and diminished real wages and incomes severely impacted food security for the urban poor. The 1996 Poverty Assessment Survey identified food insecurity as the most common factor for households that had plummeted below the poverty line in 1994–1995, with an overwhelming 74% of all poor households and 76% of all very poor households reporting food shortages (Marquette, 1997, p. 1146).

The second critical event was the rapidly expanding HIV/AIDS pandemic, with its devastating social, economic and demographic impacts. Not only were breadwinners dying, but households were forced to use scarce resources for medicine and funerals, widows had to reconfigure households, and grandparents and other extended family members had to assume responsibility for AIDS orphans (Grant & Palmiere, 2003). By 1997, the World Health Organization data reported an HIV prevalence of 25.84% of the population (WHO, 1998). The impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic forms part of the backdrop to this research. A couple of households in the study endure deaths and subsequent household reconfiguration, and there are also lodging individuals and households that simply disappear during this period.

This chapter is based on a longitudinal study situated in the secondary city of Gweru, located partway between the capital, Harare, and the second largest city of Bulawayo. Using the typological categorization featured in the Consuming Urban Poverty research project (Haysom in this volume), Gweru represents both a corridor secondary city and a subnational urban centre. As a corridor secondary city and with direct international links to South Africa and Mozambique, Gweru has a well-developed connectivity network (Sheppard, 2016) that enhances its economic development. As a subnational urban centre, it is the capital of Midlands province, an important industrial city and a vital agricultural service centre for a large hinterland. Gweru’s 1992 population of 128,000 has since grown to 146,000 (World Population Review, 2021). Post-independence, Gweru has served as a major destination for rural–urban and interurban migrants in search of employment and an urban base. Similar to other Zimbabwean cities, Gweru could not meet the insatiable demand for housing that was driven by high growth rates and in-migration; by 1990, Gweru’s official waiting list was 14,468 (Grant, 1996), but realistically the shortfall would have been much greater. Prohibitions on squatting, high costs of new housing, and acute shortages of formal sector rental shelter serve to funnel urbanites to lodging, that is, the informal, private rental of rooms and part-rooms as the only viable, affordable option (Grant, 2007).

The data for this chapter is based on a three-year longitudinal study of 100 lodging households in 1993–1995. This involved purposive, stratified sampling to capture lodgers in all four density areas: peri-urban, and low-, medium-, and high-density. Types of lodging shelter range from peri-urban cottages to rooms and part-rooms in private houses, to former servants’ quarters, to overcrowded, poorly serviced conglomerate houses in high-density areas (Grant, 2007). With lodging, oral agreements replace formal leases. Although lodging can be arranged in a timely manner with the repurposing of rooms and part-rooms, it also means that rents can be raised arbitrarily and lodgers may be evicted with little notice, often when extended family members of landlords/ladies arrive for long-term stays. However, the fluidity of lodging makes it an ideal shelter choice for migrants, especially as economic and household situations change.

One of the challenges we faced in this study was in locating our respondents for follow-up interviews in 1994 and 1995, especially in light of the difficult economic environment and the propensity for lodgers to move frequently. Moves within Gweru were often driven by the need for lower rent, to be closer to work or markets for selling goods, and for different spatial needs, among other factors such as lack of upkeep and noise. Although our sample size diminished to 40 in 1994 and 25 in 1995, we were able to determine the movement patterns of almost 50% of the original 100.

Within this difficult context of retrenchments, inflation, increasing costs of food and the growing incidence of food insecurity, all against the backdrop of the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, this chapter seeks to answer the following questions:

  • What are the characteristics of the most vulnerable households and how do their circumstances change?

  • How do households demonstrate resilience and combat food insecurity during this difficult time?

  • How do economic and social linkages and bonds with the rural and urban-based translocal family change and what role does this play in the food security of urban households?

Rents, Household Incomes and Modes of Livelihood

Although the sample size of 100 lodgers is in no way representative, the longitudinal aspect of this research allows insight into how the dynamic economic situation impacted ordinary households. In 1993, most lodging households were dependent on formal sector employment, with 56% engaged solely in the formal sector, 22% solely in the informal sector and 17% in both. Even though formal sector wages were, on average, 31% higher than informal sector wages, there was a substantial range in both sectors. Women’s average incomes were considerably lower than men’s average wages, at 55% in formal employment and 82% in informal income (Grant, 2007), emphasizing gender discrimination in employment, one of several key factors that determine household food security (Riley & Dodson, 2020). Altogether, the average household income in 1993 was Z$488. Almost three-quarters of households relied on just one mode of livelihood, and for 75% of these, this constituted formal sector employment, which made them vulnerable to retrenchment. Only one-quarter of 1993 households engaged in two modes of livelihood and a mere two households had three modes.

Many households struggle with the cash-intensive nature of urban life. Already in 1993, we interviewed 16 lodgers whose household expenses exceeded monthly incomes. Another 30% spent 75 to 100% of incomes on expenses and 34% used 50 to 74% for expenses, such that a full 80% of households used at least 50% of their incomes for expenses. When households have little to no savings and exist from pay cheque to pay cheque, the shock of a temporary layoff or a full retrenchment constitutes an immediate catastrophe. Rent, utilities and school fees were all fixed expenses. The only available options to reduce school fees were to pull children from school or send them to less expensive rural schools. When lodgers were asked how they reduce costs when needed, 65% stated that they cut back on food. While some never borrowed money, others borrowed from friends (50%), family (26%), the landlord/landlady (three%) and friends and family (three%).

Even though lodging rents in this medium-sized city were not excessively high, the cost of rent was the “ransom” that lodgers had to pay to remain in the city. During these three years, rent increased by 21% from Z$103 to Z$125; in 1993, lodgers spent, on average, 22% of monthly income on rent and this increased to 27% in 1995. Nationwide, the rising cost of utilities was the main driver for increased rents. The Central Statistical Office Consumer Price Index for 1993–1998, using 1990 as a base of 100, found that rents, rates and utilities across Zimbabwe increased by 219% by 1995 (Grant, 2007). In a smaller city such as Gweru, however, landladies and landlords likely had more personal relationships with their lodgers and may have been more sensitive regarding the ability of lodgers to pay increased rents. Most small-scale landladies and landlords depended on lodgers to help them make house payments and/or as a key—and sometimes solitary—source of income. In addition, there was strong competition for dependable lodgers and lodgers could easily move elsewhere for cheaper rents. Altogether, just over one-fifth (22%) of lodgers moved elsewhere in the city during the course of the study. One can speculate that this was in search of cheaper rents and perhaps for different space and location as household compositions changed and, in many cases, as modes of livelihood increased.

Resilient households were best placed to cope with increasing rents. For example, Lodging Household #11 (extended family) changed their modes from one wage (1993) to one wage and one self-employment in 1994, to three modes of self-employment in 1995 and increased household income by 317%. Since their rent only increased by 11%, the%age of income spent on rent declined from 16 to six%. By 1995, there was a generational shift as two adult daughters, one with a child, took over the urban lodging household and both parents moved permanently to their rural home. While their father was retired, their mother contributed by crocheting goods, which provided both households with some cash. All unemployed adult family members were based at the rural home, which indicates a recognition of the cash-intensive nature of urban residence. Lodging Household #11 exhibits what Malte Steinbrink (2009) termed translocal economic diversification and transmigration. The urban household diversified and transmigration entailed a shift of unemployed and retired members to the rural home, with goods to sell being remitted to the urban household. This is an example of what Steinbrink and Hannah Niedenführ (2020) emphasize as the coordination of consumption, reproduction and resource use activities of a split urban–rural translocal family.

In 1993, even though only the husband and wife lived in town and all adult and younger children were at their rural home, Lodging Household #45 was a more vulnerable household since it depended on one mode of self-employment (sewing/doilies) and rent absorbed 28% of their income. However, by 1995, there were three modes, with one wage and two self-employment modes of doilies/sewing and working as a contractor. Not only did household income increase by 180%, but rent was free since the wife was now employed as a domestic servant.

In stark contrast, vulnerable nuclear Lodging Household #86 depended on one wage job in 1993, and rent absorbed 22% of income for the household of two adults, two youths and four children. In 1994 the husband lost his wage job, so that by 1995, the household income had declined by 88%. Even though only the husband and wife remained in the city, and both sold vegetables for an income, they were in debt and rent alone absorbed 115% of their monthly income. This, of course, was not sustainable and unless the couple were able to generate more income to pay off their debt and cover expenses, or unless transmigration brought a productive family member to the household, a move to their rural home would be inevitable.

The Spatiality of Lodging, Impacts on Food Security and the Rural–Urban Lifeline

It is helpful to note that the main focus of this research is lodging, and thus this chapter views food security through the lens of private rental, which in most situations is the “view from the room”. Within the framework of David Harvey’s “matrix of spatialities” (2019, p. 135), the absolute space of the lodging room (or part-room) restricts food storage and preparation. Any food acquired in bulk (usually from rural areas) must be stored in cramped quarters along with all other household items. Food is prepared in the same space in which the household sleeps and is usually cooked on a hotplate (unless situated in peri-urban quarters, which may lack electricity) or on a small paraffin stove. Only a small number of households had any access to refrigeration. The water source was either in the kitchen (in the case of lodging space shared with the landlord’s/lady’s family) or a standpipe in the yard of overcrowded lodging houses. In the latter case, extension cords that snake between rooms also present serious fire hazards. Thus, sanitation and safety aspects of absolute space are challenges that impact food storage, preparation and safety. Cecilia Tacoli (2020, p. 28) reminds us that “lack of adequate housing and sufficient living space are considerable obstacles to buying food in bulk and at lower cost”. While the absolute space of lodging varied considerably, overcrowded, dilapidated lodging houses represented micro-slums where physical hazards and lack of hygiene created unsafe living environments, inclusive of food preparation and storage, thus contributing to food insecurity.

Another drawback to the absolute space of lodging is lack of access to yards and gardens. This access can depend on the type of lodging shelter, the number of households on the plot and the generosity of the landlord/landlady. If one lodges on a commercial lodging property, you may have to share with 10 to 12 other households, and either there is no room for a garden, or the yard is hard as cement. Even if you are the only lodger living with a family, they may claim exclusive use of the garden. The cost of water may also be a factor as to whether it’s economically feasible to grow vegetables and mealies. One lodger complained that their landlord charged extra for every person in their household, including children, to pay for the alleged extra water they consumed as a household, and that was without access to a garden.

Thus, in this case study, lodgers who were given access to a garden were rare exceptions. In 1993, only seven of the 100 lodgers were allowed to grow food; six of these urban farmers lived in high-density areas and one lived in a peri-urban area. One high-density lodger had a fowl run and made a living by selling chickens. Overall, most lodgers had to buy their food and, when possible, supplement this with mealies from their rural-based translocal family, depending on the harvest and the strength of those social ties.

Ninety-three percent of lodgers had a rural home, and thus the majority were involved in translocal networks that involved movement of people and resources (Greiner & Sakdapolrak, 2013). Gweru’s position in the urban hierarchy and its attractiveness as a destination for job seekers are evident from the fact that there are at least 30 different locations of rural Zimbabwean homes among this group of lodgers. In 1993, for those who identified as having a rural home, 40% felt they had strong to very strong linkages, in contrast to almost half (48%) who declared just moderate links and 12% with weak to very weak links. Understandably, most lodgers whose rural homes were at least 300 kms away reported moderate links. Other than that small group, the strength of social capital (Lin, 2001) with the translocal family appeared to surpass the importance of distance. For example, many with nearby rural homes had weak to moderate links and many with more distant rural homes had very strong links.

In 1993, lodging households used, on average, 36% of their monthly incomes for food, with a wide range from seven to 120%. One-fifth of households used at least 50% of monthly incomes and four% spent at least 75% of monthly incomes. At that juncture, 28% had at least one household member—usually the wife—farming at their rural home and one lodger raised chickens within Gweru. Almost two-thirds (64%) of households received food remittances from their rural translocal family. At this point in time, no respondents mentioned receiving food remittances from translocal family members in other urban areas, but this certainly may be more common now (Crush & Caesar, 2020).

Households who farmed spent slightly more—38% on average—for food, which may either reflect larger households or increased diversity in types of food consumed. It is not surprising that households that received food remittances spent significantly less on food, at an average of 22%. However, these households also had the expenditure of sending money and/or urban goods at least once a year.

By 1994, households in the study (n = 40) spent, on average, 26% of monthly income on food and 15% spent at least 40%. Most households had increased their incomes during this time. Forty% who had received mealies in 1993 continued to do so and another 27.5% who had not received mealies previously did so in 1994, for a total of just over two-thirds (67.5%) receiving mealies. More than half of those who now received mealies decreased the%age of income spent on food. The 1994 increase in households who now received mealies, and sometimes groundnuts, would also correlate to an increase in households where at least one person farmed, from 28% (1993) to 37.5% (1994). Transactional flows of food, cash, urban goods and the circulation of increased farming labour represent social and economic translocalization key survival strategies (Steinbrink, 2009).

Twenty percent of households who had previously received food remittances no longer did so. Many of these households may have decided that they didn’t have enough resources to send money and urban goods to their rural-based family in exchange for some mealies. Of the eight households who no longer received food remittances, three were headed by widows. Most of these households showed resilience by increasing modes of livelihood and, in some cases, changing livelihood strategies. Two women were now going to Botswana monthly to sell goods and to bring back goods for sale, and one of these women had been farming the previous year. Other households took in lodgers, sold doilies and second-hand clothing, and a couple of households added a productive family member. Altogether, the increases in modes of livelihood and incomes, and increases in farming and receipt of mealies, meant that for 75% of households, the%age of monthly income spent on food decreased from 1993.

The remaining 1995 respondents (n = 25) averaged 23% of monthly income spent on food, with a range from six to 60%. Only three households spent in excess of 40% of their monthly income on food. By 1995, of the 21 lodgers who had rural homes, more than half (52%) had maintained strong links or had developed stronger ties than they had in 1993. Almost two-thirds (64%) of households still received mealies and also sometimes groundnuts, and one lodging household grew their own mealies since they lived in a peri-urban area. The proportion of households who had at least one member who farmed dropped from 37.5% (1994) to 32% in 1995.

Resilient Lodging Household #73—an extended family household with nine members—may help us uncover what may have been a shift in survival strategy for some. This household sent at least one member to farm in both 1993 and 1994, but no one in 1995. They still received mealies and groundnuts twice a year and remitted Z$100 monthly. Having added a productive translocal family member by 1995, they had increased their 1993 income by 300% and engaged in three livelihood modes.

Resilient, female-centred Lodging Household #22 did not have anyone farming over the three years, but reported that their translocal rural linkages evolved from moderate in 1993 to strong in 1995. While they originally remitted money and goods once or twice a year, by 1995 they remitted Z$300 monthly, received mealies three times a year and had sent one youth household member to live there, which would mean one less mouth to feed. The option to send children, youth and unemployed adult children to the rural home was a critical coping strategy.

For vulnerable Lodging Household #86 (male-centred, with eight members), linkages with the rural-based family also evolved from moderate in 1993 and 1994 to very strong in 1995. During the first two years, they received mealies, but not in 1995, and they reported that there had been a poor harvest. In addition, the frequency of their remittances of money and urban goods declined from seven to 12 times per year down to three to six times per year to nothing, and this reflected the household’s income decline and increased vulnerability. In 1993, the wife had farmed, but by 1995, she remained in Gweru with her husband, where they both sold vegetables. Two adult daughters farmed and two youth and three children also lived at the rural home. The transmigration of the overall translocal household revealed a coordination strategy where the adult daughters could add to their parents’ livelihood through vegetables, while youth and children would be less of an economic burden at the rural home.

Female-centred, vulnerable Lodging Household #24 consistently described linkages with her rural-based family as moderate. In 1993, she sent goods once a year but didn’t receive any mealies. In 1994, this increased to sending goods three times a year and receiving mealies annually; by 1995, she remitted money and received mealies three times annually. No household member farmed or stayed at the rural home. With three adults, two children and two sources of income, the food remittances would have been critical to the household’s survival. This supports Agnes Djurfeldt’s (2021, p. 6) contention that in sub-Saharan Africa, “translocality is driven by survivalist motives and tied to increasing vulnerability”.

Female-centred Lodging Household #70 faced survival challenges similar to thousands of other households during this time. In 1993, the wife had farmed in the rural areas, but not after that. By 1995, her brother had died and this meant that her sister-in-law, her sister-in-law’s youth and three children had joined the household for a total of two adults, one youth and five children (note: the husband was absent and not discussed). The family received some social welfare for two of the orphaned children’s school fees and survived on some self-employment and rent from two lodgers. They often bought a packet of mealies from the neighbours for Z$36 and spent Z$2 to get it ground; this would last for two weeks if they ate only twice a day, in the afternoon and evening. They described their family as “too big for the food [needed]”.

The next section attempts to tie together the factors that influence levels of vulnerability and resilience during this challenging and rapidly changing period of time.

Resilience and Vulnerability for Lodgers in Gweru

Table 19.1 summarizes the types of strategies employed by the urban and rural translocal families over the three-year period. Diversification of income modes and the food security strategies impact each other, and most households engaged several strategies in both areas. Some lodging households that were highly vulnerable in 1993 became resilient. It is critical to appreciate that this environment was highly chaotic, with rapid changes in wage employment, and the presence of multiple, sudden shocks in the value of the currency and the costs of basic goods. These households had to pivot quickly and many changes were drastic. Overall, they were able to increase monthly incomes, decrease risk by diversifying modes of livelihood, and either spend proportionately less on food and/or strengthen their bonds with the rural-based translocal family such that remittances of food, cash and goods were increased. Urban lodging rents in Gweru did not increase significantly during those three years, and that would add to the economic security of most lodging households. And the fluidity of lodging allowed households to seek lodgings that met their needs regarding some or all factors such as cheaper rent, better location, quieter, less crowded, cleaner and better maintained.

Table 19.1 Translocal household strategies
Full size table

On the other hand, vulnerable households that were unable to recover from major shocks such as retrenchment or a death in the family usually left the city for their rural homes, if this was an option. Just over one in 10 moved back to their rural homes permanently in either 1994 or 1995. For those without rural homes, and widows in particular, their fates were closely tied to the mercy of urban-based family members and, to a lesser extent, friends, neighbours and social welfare. Thus, their urban social networks were crucial for survival. In some cases, the landlord/lady allowed their tenant to stay without paying rent until their situation improved. Many households were “hanging by a thread” and their subsistence depended on selling low-value goods such as used clothing or doilies. Some single women, who saved face by claiming that they sold doilies for a living, were commercial sex workers who were ill by 1995—supported by parents and other extended family—with bleak days ahead. In other households, the main wage earner had fallen sick, adding another dimension of uncertainty and added costs of medicine.

The reinforcement of translocal rural family bonds was a key factor for many of those lodgers whose situations actually improved that source of staple foods from rural homes, the option to delegate family members to farm and live there, and increased ability to help with cash and urban good remittances reinforced the stability of many resilient lodgers during this period. Reciprocal remittances were also found to be prevalent among internal migrants in research on Windhoek, Namibia. Bruce Frayne (2001, in Crush & Caesar, 2020) found that 62% of urban households had received food remittances from their translocal rural family during the previous year. And overall, “levels of food insecurity in Windhoek were lower than predicted given pervasive poverty, high unemployment, a relatively small informal economy, and minimal urban agriculture” (Frayne, 2005a, 2005b, 2007, in Crush & Caesar, 2020, p. 296).

Another extensive food security study centred on Epworth, a peri-urban, mainly informal settlement with a population of 167,462 in 2012 on the outskirts of Harare (Tawodzera in this volume). Tawodzera and Chigumira (2019) found that remittances (rural–urban: 13.5%; intra-urban: 4.8%; and international: 4.4%) played a minor role in overall annual food sources. With the majority of sample households relying on casual work and informal wage work in an unhealthy environment that lacked access to water, sanitation and electricity for most residents, food poverty and limited dietary diversity were acute (Tawodzera & Chigumira, 2019).

Due to the process of deindustrialization, formal sector retrenchments, sudden increases in food and basic services and the resultant shift towards reliance on informal work and self-employment, the 1993–1995 period was only the start of acute challenges for low-income urbanites.

As a secondary city, Gweru provided a locale that was more easily accessed and negotiated than larger cities, and where there was some (perhaps only temporary) buffer from high costs in larger cities such as the capital, Harare. By 1995, “the money did not go far” and lodging households depended on their own resilience and on translocal urban and rural social networks to increase food security and economic diversification in the chaotic economic and social environment that was—and unfortunately still is—Zimbabwe.

This case study reflects the “view from the room” as a lens through which to examine the interstices between low-income housing, livelihoods, food security and translocal processes and strategies. In secondary cities across the Global South, millions of households rent a room and the physical attributes of that room and its immediate environment have impacts on overcrowding, physical security, access to water and sanitation, ability to store food, hygiene and safety around food preparation and storage, and, in rare cases, access to yards for growing or raising food. Whether the room is in an overcrowded lodging house, or a shack in a slum situated far from work, as Tacoli (2020) notes, these non-income factors contribute to malnutrition and food insecurity, with a high price being paid by women. Shelter—space, environment and locale—is a critical component of the complex issue of food security for the urban poor.